Kevin Cazelles

Data and computational scientist

For the past 10 years, I have conducted theoretical, statistical and computational research in ecology. I have significantly contributed to the scientific literature and presented my findings in various international conferences. In most projects I have been involved in, I have designed, developed and contributed to software that implement mathematical and statistical modelling as well as reproducible analysis pipelines. Today, I am seeking job opportunities to leverage my expertise in mathematics, statistics, data science and computational science.

Education

Professional experience

  10/2020–present: Co-founder of inSileco Inc.

   Guelph, ON, Canada
  • Was contracted by DFO Halifax to develop a Shiny application that allows for the creation of reproducible reports. A first version of the application with the core features has been delivered in a first contract. A second contract has recently been signed to add new features to the application.
  • Was contracted by DFO Halifax and Environment and Climate Change Canada to develop and present workshops on using R as a Geographic Information system (GIS) and on reproducible research.
  • Developed 2 chapters of a course that introduces students to spatial data science (université TÉLUQ) and handled the deployment of online materials (bookdown).

  03/2021–present: Research Associate

   McCann Lab, University of Guelph, ON, Canada
  • Carried out numerical experiments dynamical systems to better understand the impact of human activities on ecological network. Most of the research project I worked on required to build and solve ordinary differential equations, Julia was used to that end.
  • Developed an R package that performs statistical analysis of species co-occurrence that are frequently used by ecologists.

  06/2017–10/2020: Postdoctoral Researcher

   McCann Lab, University of Guelph, ON, Canada
  • Led statistical analysis of homogenization of fish communities in freshwater lakes. Designed an R data pipeline to retrieve, clean and analyze data.
  • Applied supervised learning technics to use multiple bio-tracers as spatial fingerprints to determine the geographical origin of food products. Designed and developed R and Julia libraries to that end, ran extensive simulations on Compute Canada’s servers. This work is still being for future work and has already led me to act as an expert for food provenance issues.
  • Developed an R package to turn R into a client for the public Speciesplus/CITES Checklist API to ease access to the Species+ database.

  10/2012–12/2016: PhD candidate

   Université de Montpellier, France/ Université du Québec à Rimouski, QC, Canada
  • Led extensive theoretical and applied statistical analysis to understand the link between species co-occurrence and species interactions. Designed custom numerical tool, ran extensive numerical simulations aa well as statistical analysis of several datasets using R and C++. This work led to several publications and to point out major limitations of very popular species distribution models.
  • Developed and presented several tutorials on probability, statistics and data science (theory and applications with R) for graduate student to disseminate best practices.

  06/2012–09/2012: Research Associate

   École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
  • Ported wavelets code written in Matlab to C++.
  • Designed a data pipeline to create a data driven animation of the spread of dengue in Southern Asia. This helped decision makers to understand the role of major urban centers on the timing of epidemics.

  01/2011–11/2011: Research assistant

   Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
  • Carried out germination experiments on endemic plant species of the Serra do Cipó to better understand the key ecological mechanisms involved.

  07/2010–12/2010: Research assistant

   SIMBIOS Centre, Abertay University, Dundee, United Kingdom
  • Expanded a model coded in C++ to integrate a new physiological process and identify the models parameters with the highest impact on the growth.

Computational Skills

Scientific programming

  • ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ R
  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ Julia
  • ■ ■ □ □ □ Python
  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ Matlab/Octave
  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ C/C++
  • ■ ■ □ □ □ Sage
  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ Bash
  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ Torque/Slurm

Reproducibility

  • ■ ■ ■ ■ □ Git
  • ■ ■ ■ ■ □ GNU make
  • ■ ■ ■ ■ □ GitHub Actions
  • ■ ■ □ □ □ Docker

Database

  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ SQLite
  • ■ ■ □ □ □ postgreSQL

Modern web technologies

  • ■ ■ ■ ■ □ HTML/CSS
  • ■ ■ □ □ □ Javascript
  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ JSON/XML
  • ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ YAML/TOML
  • ■ ■ ■ ■ □ Jekyll/Hugo
  • ■ ■ ■ ■ □ Shiny App

Document preparation

  • ■ ■ ■ □ □ SQLite
  • ■ ■ □ □ □ postgreSQL

Teaching

Mentoring experience

Publications

Peer reviewed

  1. Harvey E., Marleau J., Gounand I., Leroux S., Firkowski C., Altermatt F., Blanchet F., Cazelles K., Chu C., DAloia C., Donelle L., Gravel D., Guichard F., McCann K., Ruppert J., Ward C. & Fortin M. (2021). A general meta-ecosystem model to predict ecosystem function at landscape extents. Preprint. doi: 10.22541/au.162799968.80128369/v1.
  2. Poisot T., Bergeron G., Cazelles K., Dallas T., Gravel D., MacDonald A., Mercier B., Violet C., Vissault S. & Chapman D. (2021). Global knowledge gaps in species interaction networks data. Journal of Biogeography. doi: 10.1111/jbi.14127.
  3. Beauchesne D., Cazelles K., Archambault P., Dee L. & Gravel D. (2021). On the sensitivity of food webs to multiple stressors. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.13841.
  4. McCann K., Cazelles K., MacDougall A., Fussmann G., Bieg C., Cristescu M., Fryxell J., Gellner G., Lapointe B. & Gonzalez A. (2020). Landscape modification and nutrient-driven instability at a distance. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.13644.
  5. Cazelles K., Zemlak T., Gutgesell M., Myles-Gonzalez E., Hanner R. & McCann K. (2021). Spatial fingerprinting: Horizontal fusion of multi-dimensional bio-tracers as solution to global food provenance problems. Foods. doi: 10.3390/foods10040717.
  6. Blanchet F., Cazelles K. & Gravel D. (2020). Co-occurrence is not evidence of ecological interactions. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.13525.
  7. Warne C., McCann K., Rooney N., Cazelles K. & Guzzo M. (2020). Geography and morphology affect the ice duration dynamics of northern hemisphere lakes worldwide. Geophysical Research Letters. doi: 10.1029/2020gl087953.
  8. Solarik K., Cazelles K., Messier C., Bergeron Y. & Gravel D. (2019). Priority effects will impede range shifts of temperate tree species into the boreal forest. Journal of Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.13311.
  9. Poisot T., Bergeron G., Cazelles K., Dallas T., Gravel D., MacDonald A., Mercier B. & Vissault S. (2020). Environmental biases in the study of ecological networks at the planetary scale. Preprint. doi: 10.1101/2020.01.27.921429.
  10. Brice M., Cazelles K., Legendre P. & Fortin M. (2019). Disturbances amplify tree community responses to climate change in the temperateboreal ecotone. Global Ecology and Biogeography. doi: 10.1111/geb.12971.
  11. Cazelles K. (2019). Homogenization of freshwater lakes: Recent compositional shifts in fish communities are explained by gamefish movement and not climate change. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14829.
  12. Albouy C., Archambault P., Appeltans W., Araújo M., Beauchesne D., Cazelles K., Cirtwill A., Fortin M., Galiana N., Leroux S., Pellissier L., Poisot T., Stouffer D., Wood S. & Gravel D. (2019). The marine fish food web is globally connected. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0950-y.
  13. Cazelles K. & McCann K. (2019). Diversity-stability and the structure of perturbations. Peer Community In Ecology. doi: 10.24072/pci.ecology.100017.
  14. Bartley T., Guzzo M., Cazelles K., Verville A., McMeans B. & McCann K. (2019). Thermal preference influences depth use but not biomass of predatory fishes in response to lake morphometry. Preprint. doi: 10.1101/572925.
  15. Bartley T., McCann K., Bieg C., Cazelles K., Granados M., Guzzo M., MacDougall A., Tunney T. & McMeans B. (2019). Food web rewiring in a changing world. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0772-3.
  16. Wheeler H., Berteaux D., Furgal C., Cazelles K., Yoccoz N. & Grémillet D. (2018). Identifying key needs for the integration of social-ecological outcomes in arctic wildlife monitoring. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13257.
  17. Geschke J., Cazelles K. & Bartomeus I. (2018). Rcites: An r package to access the CITES speciesplus database. Journal of Open Source Software. doi: 10.21105/joss.01091.
  18. Galiana N., Lurgi M., Claramunt-López B., Fortin M., Leroux S., Cazelles K., Gravel D. & Montoya J. (2018). The spatial scaling of species interaction networks. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0517-3.
  19. MacDougall A., Harvey E., McCune J., Nilsson K., Bennett J., Firn J., Bartley T., Grace J., Kelly J., Tunney T., McMeans B., Matsuzaki S., Kadoya T., Esch E., Cazelles K., Lester N. & McCann K. (2018). Context-dependent interactions and the regulation of species richness in freshwater fish. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03419-1.
  20. Legagneux P., Casajus N., Cazelles K., Chevallier C., Chevrinais M., Guéry L., Jacquet C., Jaffré M., Naud M., Noisette F., Ropars P., Vissault S., Archambault P., Bêty J., Berteaux D. & Gravel D. (2018). Our house is burning: Discrepancy in climate change vs. Biodiversity coverage in the media as compared to scientific literature. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00175.
  21. Kopelke J., Nyman T., Cazelles K., Gravel D., Vissault S. & Roslin T. (2017). Food-web structure of willow-galling sawflies and their natural enemies across europe. Ecology. doi: 10.1002/ecy.1832.
  22. Massol F., Dubart M., Calcagno V., Cazelles K., Jacquet C., Kéfi S. & Gravel D. (2017). Island biogeography of food webs. Networks of invasion: A synthesis of concepts. doi: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2016.10.004.
  23. Cazelles K., Mouquet N., Mouillot D. & Gravel D. (2016). On the integration of biotic interaction and environmental constraints at the biogeographical scale. Ecography. doi: 10.1111/ecog.01714.
  24. Cazelles K., Araújo M., Mouquet N. & Gravel D. (2015). A theory for species co-occurrence in interaction networks. Theoretical Ecology. doi: 10.1007/s12080-015-0281-9.
  25. Stradic S., Silveira F., Buisson E., Cazelles K., Carvalho V. & Fernandes G. (2015). Diversity of germination strategies and seed dormancy in herbaceous species of campo rupestre grasslands. Austral Ecology. doi: 10.1111/aec.12221.
  26. Cazelles B. & Cazelles K. (2014). Major urban centers have weak influence on the timing of dengue epidemics in southeast asia. International Journal of Infectious Diseases. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2014.03.873.
  27. Cazelles B., Cazelles K. & Chavez M. (2013). Wavelet analysis in ecology and epidemiology: Impact of statistical tests. Journal of The Royal Society Interface. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0585.
  28. Cazelles K., Otten W., Baveye P. & Falconer R. (2013). Soil fungal dynamics: Parameterisation and sensitivity analysis of modelled physiological processes, soil architecture and carbon distribution. Ecological Modelling. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.08.008.

Popularization

  1. Cazelles K. (2014). La Biodiversité en territoire isolée. Accromath.
  2. Legagneux P., Cazelles K. & Gravel D. (2019). Sommes-nous bien informés ? : écarts entre la couverture du changement climatique et de la biodiversité par les médias et la littérature scientifique. Climatoscope.

Software

This section includes a subset of my contributions to open-source software. If you are interested in seeing more, most of my contributions can be found on my GitHub account, see also the section “notes” of my website.


packages

Below is a selection of R packages I significantly contributed to.

  • rcites (maintainer): R client to access the Speciesplus database via the Speciesplus/CITES Checklist API. .
  • graphicsutils (maintainer): Miscellaneous graphical functions .
  • inSilecoMisc (maintainer): Miscellaneous R functions .
  • disker (maintainer): Rcpp implementation of 5 isotropic dispersal kernels .
  • motifcensus (maintainer): Rcpp implementation that counts the different positions occupied by the different species in all the 3 species motifs of a given unipartite network .
  • rmangal (contributor): R client for the Mangal database .
  • rgovcan (contributor): R package to interact with the Open Canada API .

Research compendia

I am strongly committed to making the research I do reproducible. To that end, every study I lead comes with a research compendium. Below is a list of selected research compendia that were published along side with the corresponding paper.

Manuals

  • Casajus N. & Cazelles K. Visualiser vos données avec R (2020)
  • Cazelles K. Utiliser R Markdown pour créer des documents dynamiques (2020)

Presentations

Talks

  1. Cazelles K., Myles-Gonzalez E., Zemlak T. & McCann K. (2019-12-19). Embracing the blessing of dimensionality to determine species’ provenance. QCBS Annual symposium. Montreal, QC, Canada.
  2. Cazelles K., Gravel D. & McCann K. (2018-08-01). Towards an Energetic Theory of Island biogeography. ESA Annual Meeting. New-Orleans, LA, USA.
  3. Cazelles K., Myles-Gonzalez E., Zemlak T. & McCann K. (2018-07-01). Fighgting Noise with dimensionality. CSEE Annual Meeting. Guelph, ON, Canada.
  4. Cazelles K., Gravel D. & McCann K. (2017-12-01). Towards an Energetic Theory of Island biogeography. Ecology Across Borders. Ghent, Belgium.
  5. Cazelles K., Gravel D. & McCann K. (2017-12-01). Do ecological interactions impact geographic distributions of species?. Ecology Across Borders. Ghent, Belgium.
  6. Vissault S. & Cazelles K. (2017-01-08). Teaser of the alien R package. R à Québec. Québec, QC, Canada.
  7. Cazelles K., Mouquet N. & Gravel D. (2015-12-01). Do ecological interaction impact geographical distributions of species?. QCBS - Annual Symposium. Montreal, QC, Canada.
  8. Cazelles K., Mouquet N., Mouillot D. & Gravel D. (2015-08-01). Integration of ecological networks in a theoretical stochastic model of biogeography. CSEE - Annual Meeting. Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
  9. Cazelles K., Mouquet N., Mouillot D. & Gravel D. (2014-12-01). Integration of ecological networks in a theoretical stochastic model of biogeography. BES-SFE - Joint Annual Meeting. Lille, France.
  10. Cazelles K. & Cazelles B. (2012-08-01). Wavelet Clustering, a tool to integrate spatial and temporal patterns based on their dynamical properties, application to dengue in Thailand. Model in Population Biology. Santa Maria, Brazil.

Seminars

  1. Cazelles K. (2018-10-12). Do biotic interactions affect species distribution?. Université de Sherbrooke. Université de Sherbrooke.
  2. Cazelles K. (2018-03-13). Do biotic interactions affect species distribution?. Department of Integratove Biology, University of Guelph. Department of Integratove Biology, University of Guelph.
  3. Cazelles K. (2018-02-02). Do biotic interactions affect species distribution?. Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Montréal. Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Montréal.
  4. Cazelles K. (2018-01-08). Do biotic interactions affect species distribution?. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto.
  5. Cazelles K. (2017-02-09). Do biotic interactions affect species distribution?. Laboratoire d’ECologie Alpine, Université Grenoble Alpes. Laboratoire d’ECologie Alpine, Université Grenoble Alpes.

Posters

  1. Vissault S., Gravel D., Cazelles K. & Poisot T.. Mangal, a global ecological interactions database. biodiversitynext. Leiden – The Netherlands (2018-08-01).
  2. Brice M., Legendre P., Cazelles K. & Fortin M.. Long-term forest community changes in the boreal-temperate ecotone. ESA Annual Meeting. New-Orleans, LA, USA (2018-08-01).
  3. Myles-Gonzalez E., Cazelles K., Zemlak T. & McCann K.. Using Distributions of Biotracers to Predict Global Food Traceability. 69th Pacific Fisheries Technologists’ (PFT) conference 2018. Alaska (2018-02-01).
  4. Beauchesne D., Cazelles K., Archambault P. & Gravel D.. Predicting the spatial distribution of ecological networks. CSEE Annual meeting. Victoria, BC, Canada (2017-08-01).
  5. Legagneux P., Casajus N., Cazelles K., Chevallier C., Chevrinais M., Guéry L., Jacquet C., Jaffré M., Naud M., Noisette F., Ropars P., Vissault S., Archambault P., Bêty J., Berteaux D. & Gravel D.. The Earth Tribune. ArcticNet Meeting. Winnipeg, MB, Canada (2016-12-01).

Grants and awards

Media Coverage